Editorial

The arbitrary arrest of a rights defender, Adilur Rahman Khan, yet again provides a poignant pointer to the incumbent’s increasing predilections for human rights violations. According to a New Age report on Monday, the Detective Branch of police detained him from in front of his residence at Gulshan in the capital on Saturday night under Section 54 of the CrPC. […]

There still may be some pride when Dhaka University is regarded as Oxford of the East but, realists, who have followed the institution’s evolution post liberation, will admit that comparison with the premier British institution stems more from a false sense of grandeur. The New Age report published on Monday, revealing the sorry state of research of the apex public […]

Democracy and liberalism seem to have a bright chance of survival in the orient in some workable form with the exception being the regions of West Asia, North Africa and Pakistan-Afghanistan. For these later regions, the jury is still out and the chances of survivability of any liberal idea would depend more on the internal socio-political variables, writes Sarwar Jahan […]

Our authorities are getting all set to have an unsafe and unreliable nuclear plant from all places in Russia; a country that holds the world record for the largest in-house nuclear disaster in their power plants. This is bad news but does our government care? Does the major opposition party also accept this nuclear threat for our country? Our government […]

While Eid ul Fitr is the most significant religious occasion for Muslims in the country, this year, celebrations that usually accompany the day have become somewhat muted with the relentless suffering of hapless Rana Plaza victims hanging over the nation’s conscience. While many victims of the tragic building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 workers, have been handed out financial […]

Just a few weeks ago, thousands of youth in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country took to the streets demanding the cancellation of the existing quota system that has raised controversies for various reasons. Moreover, they also rallied for an increase in the age limit for jobs at government offices, autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies and corporations to 35 […]

Unless the issue of settlements is addressed in accordance with international and humanitarian law as well as in compliance with the resolutions of the United Nations, Kerry will be shooting himself in the legs and his success in his peace mission would be worse than his failure, writes Nicola Nasser THE critical issue of the ever-expanding illegal Israeli colonial settlements […]

A VERY interesting write up, published in a local daily on August 6 offered a viable solution to purchasing power plants available within short lead time as a better alternative to rental power plants. As we know, a new power plant usually takes between a minimum of 4-6 years to begin operation. In case of a total seagoing power ship, […]

THE ongoing campaign, launched by the front organisations of the ruling Awami League, in which ‘achievements’ of the AL-led government have been enumerated and contrasted with the ‘failures’ of the previous political administration of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance, in attractive banners plastered on hoardings at all strategic points in the capital Dhaka, seems to have been conceptualised by a […]

IT IS indeed unfortunate that teachers and staff of different non-government schools and colleges, who are on monthly pay order, a government scheme under which non-government teachers and staff get the amount of the basic pay received by their counterparts in government schools and colleges, continue to draw salaries from their respective institutions as well, in breach of a government […]

The public university policies, especially the ones relating to its willingness to establish partisan control over the campuses at any cost like appointing the ruling party linked people in the key positions of the institutions using the loopholes in their rules and regulations, pursued till date by the incumbent government like its predecessors are largely responsible for what is going […]

A DAILY poll published on a local English-language newspaper showed an alarming 15 per cent of the people who have participated in the poll supporting that Tk 1 lakh compensation for workers in accidents or disasters is justified. It’s very disheartening when the government and the people responsible do not take any worthwhile actions, but what about the general public? Have […]

IN AN echo of public sentiment, the Awami League promised, in its election manifesto, an ‘appropriate pharmaceutical policy’. In line with the promise, the AL-led government formed a committee to suggest a drug policy, including the lists of essential and commonly used drugs, two years ago, and the committee submitted its report to the health ministry about 10 months ago. […]

THE photograph published on the front page of New Age on Tuesday, which shows trees felled to fill water bodies at village Barakau in Kaliganj upazila of Gazipur to implement a housing project by the public works and housing ministry and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, speaks volume about the lack of commitment of the Awami League-led government to the protection of […]

One of the lessons from the last decade in Pakistan is that money might buy American officials a seat at the table. But Pakistani generals — or Egyptian generals — will not necessarily listen, writes David Rohde AS THE Egyptian army continued its violent crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood this week, White House officials said that the United States can’t […]

THIS refers to an article on electric rickshaws, titled ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’ in the weekly publication of a local English-language daily on August 4. If electric rickshaws are charging their batteries by utilising illegal low-tension electrical connection, they are cheating the Power Development Board, which is a punishable offence. However, about overloading the system, these rickshaw […]

THE arson attack on four villages of the hill people in Khagrachari by Bengali settlers on Saturday, which left at least 100 houses gutted and prompted the villagers to flee to no man’s land on the Bangladesh-India border at Matiranga upazila, provides a poignant pointer to increasing tension in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. According to a report published in New […]

A TOTAL of six suspected robbers faced mob beating leaving all but one of them dead in Pabna, Moulvibazar and Rangpur in the past couple of days. According to a New Age report on Monday, when a gang of 5/7 robbery suspects were roaming around Hadal village at Faridpur upazila in Pabna early Sunday, villagers chased them and beat three […]

Governments always plead security as an excuse—in the Snowden case, security from terrorist attack. This pretext comes from an administration carrying out a grand international terrorist campaign with drones and special operations forces that is generating potential terrorists at every step, writes Noam Chomsky ON JULY 9, the Organisation of American States held a special session to discuss the shocking […]

CONGRATULATIONS to the group from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology—my alma mater as Ahsanullah Engineering College, 1954—for their wonderful 100cc economical car, as reported in the weekend supplement of a local English-language daily on August 2. It can be a boon for the environment and ideal for our usually narrow urban roads. Although the prototype cost around Tk 70,000, mass […]